Originally Posted by rlbond86

Here is something I thought of the other day:

God cannot both be all-good and all-powerful.

Take the Holocaust, a clearly horrible tragedy in which 12 million were mercilessly slaughtered due to the will of an evil dictator.

God did not intervene.

This leads to three possibilities:

1. God wanted the Holocaust to happen: God, for some reason, MADE the Holocaust happen. It was His will. But clearly a good God would not murder 12 million of His creations, especially after that whole rainbow-covenant thing, if you believe that stuff.

2. God did not intervene for some reason: One reason or another, God decided not to intervene. However, it seems odd that a good God would be apathetic to such a situation. Thus the only likely solution for this possibility is the "clockmaker" God, who created the universe but now does not intervene in events, or only works "small" miracles. Yet then, God would have restricted His powers and thus would no longer be all-powerful. But if God does not intervene at all, why pray at all? Unless he still works small miracles. Just don't ask for world peace

3. God could not intervene: God was powerless to stop Adolf Hitler, for some reason. Perhaps He cannot exert such a large influence, or perhaps something else. Or perhaps He is gone. Or stripped of His powers. Or being held captive in a God-power-proof prison. Or never existed at all. The point is, if this is the case, clearly He is not all powerful.


What does everyone else have to say? Am I overlooking something? Personally, I believe the clockmaker idea, but would be interested to hear other interpretations.

No Bible stuff, please.